Report: As Cuomo rebuffed calls for billionaire tax, governor took $570,000 in donations from them

(The Center Square) – A news report Tuesday indicated that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pocketed nearly $570,000 in campaign contributions from a group of 15 billionaire backers over the last six months of 2020.

Those checks came, The New York Daily News reported, as the governor fended off calls for raising taxes on the state’s top earners, even amid a COVID-19 driven budget crisis. Cuomo had raised concerns that raising taxes would hinder efforts to lure those individuals back to New York City once the pandemic subsided.

Cuomo had said he would only look to raise taxes if the federal government did not deliver on $15 billion in federal stimulus aid. The American Rescue Plan eventually gave the state about $12.6 billion in funding. Shortly after that, Cuomo administration officials discovered additional funding from higher than anticipated revenue payments to the state that it said would keep the state from needing to raise taxes.

That though hasn’t deterred Democrats in the Legislature from seeking to impose their own tax hikes on the state’s wealthiest residents. The plan calls for the top tax rate for individuals earning $1 million or more and married couples earning $2 million paying a 9.85 percent rate, up from 8.82 percent. There would also be brackets for people earning more than $5 million and $25 million to pay even higher rates.

Some Democratic lawmakers reacted to the article by going to social media. Assemblywoman Jessica Ramos, D-Queens, said on Twitter that the governor chooses to spend time with those who can help him rather than those who need help.

“Even [Former President George W.] Bush visited [Louisiana] after [Hurricane] Katrina,” she tweeted. “We haven’t forgotten whose previous budgets left us with one hospital in the first place.”

The Daily News article comes as the governor faces new criticism about extending preferential treatment to family members and other well-connected individuals when COVID-19 testing first became available last year.

That itself is just one of several scandals hovering over the Executive Mansion in Albany. Cuomo faces multiple investigations concerning multiple sexual harassment claims as well as allegations his office misrepresented nursing home death totals during the pandemic.

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